Brawner successful at senior games in San Francisco

Usually Wally Brawner’s feet take the runner just about everywhere. But he had to hop on a plane to get to the 2009 Summer National Senior Games in San Francisco.

Brawner, 70, was in California for a week and competed this month in two events at the senior games.

The runner from Tonganoxie placed sixth in the 1,500-meter run on Aug. 6 and took fourth place in the 5K road race on Aug. 8.

Competing in the 70-74 age division, Brawner’s 1,500 time of 6:14.35 was sixth best out of 17 racers. But he said he was especially proud of his fourth-place time of 22:46 among 20 competitors in the 5,000.

“Nobody goes out there if they’re dog joggers,” Brawner said of the 5K competition.

Although competing was the focus of the trip, Brawner said he also enjoyed talking with a lot of people with “positive attitudes” — he joked that’s how they keep going at their age — and making some new acquaintances.